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Last week, I finally went to a place I’ve been wanting to visit for years. Each time I drove by, I’ d think, “someday I’m going to make time and go there.” Well, that ‘someday’ finally arrived. It was the second day of summer break and we had the whole day to play with.

The place is the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens. The museum is small and the gardens are large. Perfect for kids. And they have picnic tables down by the lake. What could be better? So, Vivi and I packed sandwiches, and then the kids, into the car and off we went. I’m so glad we did!

What a cornucopia of delights. The gardens are beautiful and everything is in bloom. They slope from the museum and house down to the shore of Lake Osceola. There are winding paths, sunny lawns and plenty of shady spots to rest under the trees. I felt lighter and more creative the moment I stepped into the gardens. Honestly, I couldn’t wait to get back home and write.

We enjoyed our picnic under the trees by the lake. Then, crafty mothers that we are, we managed to extend our lounging time and sneak some learning in for the kids by challenging them to a scavenger hunt for various types of sculpture. We sat and chatted while they ran off in search of sculptures in bronze, concrete, terracotta and more, reporting back to us with the name of each sculpture to prove they had found one.

Then, the boys led us on a tour of the gardens, showing us their found treasures. Last, they tried their hands at becoming part of the exhibit, as you can see in the picture here.

Another pleasant discovery was the exhibit in the museum gallery. It was the work of a father and son. The father, Arthur Jones, creates wood art and the son, Sam Jones, uses mixed media. I love wood art and this was amazing – whimsical, educational and so smooth, you just want to reach out and touch it. (Of course, we didn’t!) We even got to meet Mr. Jones (the father), as he was there that day. The son’s work was both fun in some cases and insightful in others and sometimes both. Mr. Jones (the son) had worn a magnet on his shoe for one year, and there was a display of what he picked up day by day. Funny to see how many safety pins and bobby pins there were along with screws, metal filings and the occasional leaf stuck between objects.

I personally felt synchronicity at work, as I found out the son lives in my hometown of Houston and we are around the same age, and the father lives near Orlando, my adopted town. It was fun learning of these two artists. To see some of their work, check out the exhibits section of http://polasek.org/ and Sam’s work at his gallery at http://www.ivgallery.com/.

So many enjoyable discoveries were made that day and isn’t that what art is all about?